Chapter 327
2-in-1-Chapter
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So this was why River hadn’t been allowed near this case.
It was also why he couldn’t get into the evidence lab without Leo’s help.
Yawan put one hand on her hip. "He didn’t tell you? He went straight to Chief Jerry Fort and reported his own superior. The result? His boss walked away clean—and River got suspended pending investigation."
So it was fallout from the last investigation involving the mayor.
Leo hadn’t expected that, in the end, River hadn’t been able to let go of the case.
"I know what you’re thinking, Leo, but now’s not the ti," River said before turning to Yawan. "Yawan, I know I shouldn’t be here, but I have a reason I have to do this! Harris kidnapped my nephew!"
Yawan’s tone softened slightly, no longer as aggressive as before. "I’m really sorry, but this is an evidence storage room. The departnt has strict protocols."
Leo shook his head in disapproval. "Rules are fine—but rules are dead, people are alive. You can’t let cold procedures crush living people."
Rules were made by people. And if rules no longer fit, then they ought to be changed.
For example, at the founding of the United States, slavery was still legal, but even then, slavery was already becoming outdated.
So, a few decades later, the abolitionist movent erged, demanding the complete eradication of slavery.
The situation with River was similar.
He was a detective himself (though currently suspended for other reasons). His nephew had gone missing, and the departnt wouldn’t let him touch the case—was he really supposed to obediently go ho and wait for news?
That would obviously go against human nature, and it also contradicted the very spirit of freedom and democracy that Arica had long upheld.
Yawan’s tone took on a pleading and begging quality: "NCPD is already investigating this case. If there are any developnts, I’ll let you know. So River, while no one else is around, please, just leave now, okay?"
But River didn’t budge. "You’ve dealt with the departnt before. Don’t you know what kind of people they are? You submit a report and it vanishes without a sound."
Yawan was getting angry.
Although this lab didn’t have surveillance caras due to cost reasons, Yawan couldn’t guarantee that soone else wouldn’t co back at any mont. If that happened, seeing them together could easily get Yawan dragged into this.
Thinking of that, Yawan snapped: "Then what do you want to do? Act recklessly? It’s exactly because of attitudes like yours that Night City has beco lawless!"
River folded his arms across his chest. "Lawless? Do you rember your first exam at the dical school? That ti... you barely had to try and passed quickly."
"You haven’t forgotten, right? When the girls restroom caught fire, they spent two hours evacuating everyone."
There was a hidden aning in River’s words.
Even Leo, an outsider who didn’t know the background, could tell.
River had helped Yawan in the past, and now he was using that favor as leverage to force Yawan to help him.
Well, this was one way to call in a favor—but unless absolutely necessary, Leo preferred not to operate this way. It hurt relationships too much.
Sure enough...
"You actually have the nerve to bring that up in front of ."
Yawan, thoroughly cornered, glared at River like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "Don’t let see you here again! Especially you!"
She turned to Leo, as if complaining, and said, "You don’t know him well yet, do you? That man is a total bastard!"
Leo replied, "I can understand your anger, but you should also understand him—his family mber was kidnapped by that heartless bastard Harris."
After a pause, Leo continued: "And he’s suspended—completely cut off from the investigation—and the case was handed over to a useless parasite. If it were you, what would you do?"
Yawan took a deep breath, as if she’d been convinced.
"What are you looking for? I’ll say this first: if I can’t help, then there’s nothing I can do."
Seeing Yawan soften her stance, River’s tone also eased slightly. "I just want Harris’s dream recordings. Once I get them, we’ll leave imdiately."
Yawan sighed. "He hasn’t had any dreams."
River froze. "What? What do you an?"
"Both of you, co with ."
Yawan took the lead and left the braindance editing room.
Leo and River exchanged glances. River said, "I trust Yawan isn’t lying to . Let’s follow and hear what she has to say."
They followed Yawan into an adjacent room.
"The bullet damaged his cerebral cortex. All we could extract were fragnted emotions and scattered consciousness."
River frowned. "Didn’t you try visual and auditory simulation? You didn’t try that approach?"
Yawan retorted, "But he doesn’t fall within the responsive spectrum."
River argued, "But with the right song or movie, even autistic children respond—it’s worth trying."
This thod River referred to was originally used for treating autism.
Even children with severe autism had sothing they cared about—a song, a movie, sothing that interested them.
If therapy started from that point of interest, it allowed the therapist to seem like one of them, reducing resistance and building trust.
The idea was to show that the therapist was not like the indifferent adults of the outside world, but a friend.
This, in turn, made children more accepting of both the therapist and the treatnt, significantly improving success rates.
So River’s thought was that, if it worked for autistic children, perhaps it could also work for the comatose Harris. At the very least, it might induce him to dream—and that would be enough.
"I know this thod has a certain success rate, but Harris isn’t a child—I’ve never tried this on an adult," Yawan replied.
Leo asked, "If there’s a chance it could work, why haven’t you tried it already?"
After all, letting a comatose suspect listen to music or a movie wouldn’t cause any harm. It cost nothing—so why not try?
Leo found it strange. Since Yawan knew about the thod, why not test it?
Yawan glared at Leo angrily. "I’m not like River—I went to dical school and studied neuroscience. What he’s talking about is all hearsay."
"And besides, we don’t know what Harris likes."
So it turned out Yawan wasn’t unwilling—she simply didn’t know where to start.
River sensed her hesitation and seized the mont. "I’ll figure that part out. So does this an you’re agreeing?"
Yawan let out a cold snort.
"Do I have a choice? Hurry up and get out of here. I’ll open the door for you—and don’t co back."
With that, Yawan ignored them and walked away.
Once she was gone, River could no longer contain his happiness.
As long as Yawan agreed to help, all he had to do was find out what Harris liked, get it to her, and have her play it for Harris—then maybe Harris would start dreaming.
Of course, there was no guarantee that Harris’s dreams would contain any clues to help River find his nephew.
But at least it gave River a glimr of hope.
It was far better than doing nothing.
"Let’s go, Leo. I’ve already got a detailed plan."
After leaving the NCPD lab through the front entrance, Leo and River got back into the car.
River started the engine and drove toward Santo Domingo.
"I know what you want to say. If you have a question, just ask."
"That old friend of yours said you were fired from the force. What exactly happened?"
River gave a wry smile. "Didn’t you hear what Yawen said? I went to Director Jerry Fort to try and clean up corruption in the departnt, but I didn’t expect that the rot itself was sothing Fort started."
"They confiscated my badge and the departnt-issued Lexington, told not to co to work anymore, and stopped paying ."
He paused briefly, hesitating. "It’s not that I wanted to hide it from you. It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just... it’s hard to talk about it, especially sothing that weighs on like this."
"I understand," Leo replied. "Sotis telling the wrong person about bad things just makes it worse." Then he noticed River wasn’t driving aimlessly. "But where are we headed?"
"To Joss’s place—my sister, Randy’s mother. She thinks Randy just ran away from ho, so please don’t ntion anything about a kidnapping."
"Aren’t we supposed to check Harris’s house?"
"I’ve already been to Harris’s place. No leads, no missing kids."
Leo imdiately understood why River was headed to Randy’s ho. "Since your nephew was kidnapped by Harris, they must have been in contact. You want to check their ssage history?"
"Yeah, exactly."
"But if Harris’s own place didn’t turn up anything... River, don’t you think their chat records might be just as empty?"
River stayed silent for a mont before saying, "But what choice do we have right now?"
The car fell quiet again until River broke the silence himself.
"By the way, I wanted your thoughts on this. Anthony Harris calls himself ’Peter Pan.’ Do you think he just picked that at random, or does it an sothing?"
Leo thought about it before replying.
"In the story, there’s a man nad Mr. Darling who has three children. One night, Peter Pan flies to their window, saying he’ll teach them how to fly and take them to a land full of adventure."
"The three children are delighted and quickly learn to fly with him."
River couldn’t help but interrupt. "Wait, how can little kids fly?"
Leo felt exasperated. "Do you really need to take a children’s fairy tale that seriously?"
River imdiately raised both hands. "Sorry, my bad. Go on."
Leo continued.
"The three children followed Peter Pan to a beautiful island—Neverland."
"On that island, there were fierce beasts, ’Red Indians’ of the native tribes, terrifying pirates, fairies, and rmaids."
"In short, everything that often appears in children’s dreams and fantasies could be found there."
"So they hunted dangerous animals, fought wars between Red Indians and pirates, or between the children and the pirates."
"The children, free from the constraints of adults, played freely under Peter Pan’s leadership, experiencing all kinds of dangers and adventures."
"But later, those runaway children began to miss their mothers. At the urging of one of them, they left Neverland, bidding farewell to the place that had brought them endless joy, and flew back ho."
"Later, they all grew up. Only Peter Pan never grew up, and he never went ho."
"He kept flying around, taking generation after generation of children away from their hos to enjoy a carefree childhood on Neverland."
River pondered this. "That sounds like a pretty typical fairy tale. So why would a sicko like Anthony Harris choose to call himself Peter Pan?"
Leo answered calmly. "In the story, Peter Pan is the boy who never grows up. In reality, there’s no such person. But that doesn’t stop soone like Harris from having a child who never grew up living inside his heart."
"And maybe, when he kidnapped those missing kids, he actually thought he was taking them to his version of Neverland."
River’s eyes widened. "Is he out of his mind? How could kidnapping possibly be the sa as Peter Pan taking kids to Neverland in the story?"
Leo shook his head. "People’s thoughts aren’t the sa. If everyone shared the sa values, there wouldn’t be so many criminals in the world."
"And honestly, if that was all there was to it, it wouldn’t be the worst scenario. What’s really scary is... which version of Peter Pan Harris thinks he is."
River froze. "Leo, what do you an?"
Leo held up two fingers. "There are two interpretations of Peter Pan. The one I just told you about—the most widely known version—and an earlier version from the original works."
"The difference is, in that early version, Peter Pan wouldn’t let the kids who wanted to return ho go back. He would harm those who loved him, and he would kill children who grew up—because that violated the rules of Neverland."
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